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I'm afraid I don't have an answer to the question
that I am most often asked. "Who makes a good boat?" At
least in this class. Then, too, there are a lot of differing opinions
on the definition of "good." Heck, nowadays we're
not even sure what "is" is. Or "alone." Or the
definition of good oral hygene. But I should not get started on
that tangent.
This one's nice and fancy and stylish with lots
of psuedo plush, the kind of boat that jams the roadside dealerships,
competing with the auto dealers across the land. It looks nice,
very nice, but lets look beneath the skin and see what we've really
got.
As I've said before, and I don't much like to say
it again, the market gives you what you want. Or at least what you
think you want. Or maybe just the price you want. What's sandwiched
in between what you pay and what you get . . . . here's an
example of arithmetic that doesn't add up to expectations.
Of the e-mail we get, we hear some very sad stories.
One recent letter told of a 7 month old boat with a list of problems
that filled three pages of small print. The poor fellow couldn't
go into specifics, he said, because his lawyer said not to.
No leaks from this independent council. Our little beauty here is
only two years old, but we can leak all we want to: the list
of things we found wrong with it are enough to choke a horse. Our
list only got to 1-1/2 pages of abbreviated notes because the client
terminated the survey at that point. Popping out of the mold at
a dealership near you with a retail around $58k, I'll leave it to
you to decide whether its "good" or not.
Some people write to ask, "Why do you only
talk about the bad things? Why not tell what's right with the boat?"
The answer is that what is "right" can be subject to debate,
but what is wrong with it is not. We're not talking politics here.
Besides, you've got all those other reviewers out there who cover
that side very well and I'm not going to devote the rest of my life
to typing all that stuff.
We'll start with the hull. A couple of bulkheads
broken loose due to failed secondary bonding. The entire left side
of the engine compartment bulkhead was cracked loose. Then there
longitudinal stress cracks between the stringers, showing on the
inside of the hull bottom, under the engines. Severe cracks showing
around the built in swim platform, on the inside and outside, and
more up in the bow area at the intersection between bottom stringers
and bulkhead. Virtually no part of the middle section of the hull
was accessible so it couldn't be determined what was going on within
more than half of the hull.
But we can guess. The screws that hold the flange
plate for the refrigerator were all backing out and the face plate
of the reefer was bent. Portions of the dinette (plywood whacked
together with staples) were loose because all the fasteners also
came loose. These conditions usually indicate that the hull
framing system is weak and flexing excessively. Bearing in mind
that everything inside the boat rests on the hull stringers, when
the bottom flexes, everything inside the hull starts moving around.
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Engine compartment bulkhead broken completely
loose. Nice wires and hoses hanging out in space, too. Why
expect anything to go wrong in a bouncing boat? |
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More structural crack,
this at hull bulkhead to hull up forward. |
The plywood used for the bulkhead and partitions
is loaded with knots and other defects. Much of the interior of
the hull is framed out with plywood in the form of box beams, with
a heavy coating of gelcoat. Gelcoat is brittle, and when the wood
absorbs water and swells, well, you can guess what happens. There
was exposed plywood in the engine mounting system (it too, is on
a plywood box beam), and it can be anticipated that a few years
down the road rot in the structurals is going to be a big problem.
Within the cabin area, the bottom is decked over
with carpeted plywood, very low to the bottom of the hull, with
no hatches and not one bilge pump forward of the engine compartment.
Apparently the presumption is that this part of the hull will never
get water in it. But we know better, don't we? Else how to explain
why the cabin sole and carpet were all wet?
There are no hull side frames, and the only bulkhead
is the one aft in the engine compartment. The deck is attached to
the hull with screws every 12" or so. The hull sides are fairly
thick, almost 1/4". Unfortunately, the deck shell to which
it is attached is not. All around the perimeter of the hull above
the rub rail, the deck is riddled with stress cracks. This is what
happens when you attach a weak part to a stronger part. Like attaching
a weak beam to a strong beam, the weak beam will break. Oops.
Take a gander at the top photo again. Notice that
the port holes are one inch from the guard rail. Now what do you
suppose is going to happen when the boat bumps against a piling?
Might as well just put a window on your bumper.
The deck screws are 3" long and sticking out
everywhere except in the rope locker where someone had the foresight
to realize that these long, sharp screws will do bad things to anchor
rodes. So they cut them off. They didn't have the foresight to realize
that this would cause all the screws - what was left of them anyway
- to pull loose. The bow pulpit, which is part of the deck, is flopping
around like a duck-billed platypus.
The large foredeck area, which covers about half
the length of the hull, has virtually no support from beneath whatever.
Jump on it and the whole deck flutters. Needless to say, the hatch
located in the center of the deck is leaking badly and much of the
cabin interior is wet. Never mind that the el cheapo hatch has both
retainers broken off.
Stress cracks were everywhere on the decks and
superstructure area. There were very large cracks around the cabin
door. This is easy enough to understand since there is so little
support for these structures. The whole deck shell will flutter
and shudder when bouncing along the waves.
Speaking of decks, I really liked the fact that
the side decks have 3" between the railing stanchions and house
side, so that getting up to the bow was like walking a tightrope
studded with obstacles. My size 9 shoe did not fit in the space
allotted. Nice to fall overboard with your legs still wedged in
the railings. Quick, call that lawyer that advertises on TV! You
know, the one who says you may be entitled to a lot of money.
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Here's
a good reason not to use butt connectors on 125 VAC wiring.
This one is shorting out because it was laying on wet carpet.
Note the nice screw sticking out at upper left. |
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In addition to a nice,
neat tangle of wires and hoses, we have another nice crack
at the point where a stringer joins the transom. We have a
lot more photos of hull cracks, but this should be enough
to get the point across. |
Under the vee berth forward, there are deep pockets
in the hull that collect water and don't drain. They were full of
fetid water and causing a nice green/black slime to grow over the
area. The cucarachas liked it too; their own private swimming pools.
Some of cheap plywood cabinet drawer boxes in this area were starting
to rot. How's that? Because underway, those pockets of water don't
stay put but splash around.
The Engines A pair of Volvo
4.3 liter, V-6 GM blocks with Volvo drives. This boat had been dry
stored so the drives were in good shape. Wish I could say the same
for the engines. Both had new carburetors and it was readily apparent
that all of the exhaust risers had been off and reinstalled
on both engines. Whether or not they were replacements, I couldn't
tell. Why? Whatever the reason, this is not a good sign for two
year old engines.
There had been a problem with mounting and aligning
the port engine: They had to chisel a recess into the center box
beam to which the mounts were attached for the port engine onlly,
which was 1/2" lower than the starboard. Water was collecting
in the chiseled out area and the wood starting to rot around the
mount. Then the pulley for the water pump was touching the outboard
stringer so that one could not change belts without removing the
pump. The pumps on both engines were leaking.
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| Engine Wrecker. At upper
left is the 1/2" drain hole for the hatch gutter. As
you can see, one leaf has plugged it up. Water overflows the
shallow gutter and right onto the distributor and other electrical
apparatus, steering and other good stuff that shouldn't get
wet. |
There are no shut off valves on the fuel system.
The engines utilize automotive cooling hoses; they were brittle
and sounded crunchy when compressed. Worst of all, the gutter around
the hatch opening is very shallow and has 1/2" drains that
were completely plugged up with debris. Needless to say, the gutters
were overflowing onto the engines, specifically onto the ignition
system. Perhaps this is what did in the carburetors as well. Then
we have a steel water heater screwed down to a flat plywood deck,
upon which all that water is running. Nice rusty mess here.
The paneling and cabinets were all torn out around
the two aluminum fuel tanks, which are high up on the sides in the
"aft cabin." That's because the deck fuel fill caps were
leaking water into the tanks. These had been replaced with Perko
plastic hinged caps of a sort that look like they will crush when
you step on them. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw these
little beauties. Go cheap on the fuel system and you deserve the
results. Never mind that one of the fuel filler hoses was crimped
nearly in half. It was also nice the way all the electrical system
wires were draped all over the fuel tanks.
We didn't do a sea trial because the client terminated
the survey before we got that far. This first time buyer had seen
enough.
Other Stuff There is an
air conditioner mounted under the rear dinette seat. As with most
other boats of this type, most of the interior of the hull is covered
with carpet over plywood. Of course they mounted the air conditioner
on top of the carpet, and of course there is no drip pan under it.
But never mind, the unit is not even screwed down, but sitting there
bouncing around.
The carpet headliner throughout is lumpy, water
stained and wet. And its always a good idea to put white carpeting
in a boat. It looks so nice after two years. Sort of like a mechanic's
rag.
The engine controls are so stiff that when I tried
to operate them, it looked like the entire helm panel was going
to come loose. The helm panel is so thin and flimsy that the
whole panel rocks with the throttles and shifters.
So is the aluminum windshield. Push on the top
end and it moves 2-3".
And all that nice cockpit upholstery. Oh, it gets
so tiresome writing this stuff up that I have reduced it to a standard
paragraph for my reports. One description fits all: watersoaked
and rotting. The rear cockpit seat had simply fallen apart.
The bow railings are almost okay, except when I
went up to the bow pulpit and rested my butt on the railing, it
bent. Not quite enough support. Apparently I misbehaved: one must
be very careful with railings and not sit on them. Or perhaps even
touch them. For decoration only.
The main 12 VDC switches and circuit breakers are
located in the aft cockpit, with a nice, flimsy little plastic cover
over it that does not keep the water out. What a great place to
put an electric panel, in the open cockpit, down at deck level.
Of course when you wash the deck with a hose, it won't get wet.
Nor when the salt spray comes crashing over. No sir, not at
all. You are not supposed to get your boat wet. Such abuses are
not covered by the warranty.
The boat came with a convertible top and all the
covers. The stitching holding it all together is about what you'd
expect to find on your shirt. It may last another year, no more.
In the cabin, the cabinetry is mica over plywood,
with lots of mica coming loose. Steel hinges on all the cabinet
doors were a nice touch, too. So was the plastic sink drain fitting
in the head which was fractured. The interior upholstery is
mainly thin fabric over foam rubber, the cushions already becoming
misshapen, looking like stuff from the discount furniture store.
What we have here is another "affordable"
boat. The purchase price is affordable, but what comes next is not.
But in looking this one over, its not hard to understand why it
is the way it is. With an estimated new retail price of around $58,000,
profit margins for the builder must be incredibly thin. The
only way to make money on such a boat would be to crank them out
like a cookie cutter in large numbers, cutting the costs of materials
and labor absolutely to the bone. Even to the point that fifty-cent
hinges on cabinet doors become important. It just isn't possible
to turn out a reasonable quality boat this size for that price.
Of course it is engineered so that on the show
room floor, long before it is ever exposed to wind, sun, rain and
salt water, it is going to look really fine. Yet after only two
years, this is what you are left with. Worth barely half of the
original price.
This boat makes SeaRay look like a custom built
Merritt in comparison.
People are generally dismayed when I say take a
look at the Tiara 2700. Same size, different kind of boat. Not fancy
enough. Not a floating camper. Not a floating, upholstered lounge.
Built for toughness, not luxury. Problem is, there are no inbetweens.
Just none at all.
| These
are "reviews", not surveys, and bear no resemblance
to our survey reports.
We do not publish the results of the surveys that we perform.
Please note that the purpose of these reviews is educational,
to help you discern the differences in quality among boats generally.
They are not offered as a means to help you evaluate any particular
boat builder. We have no other reviews than those posted. |
Posted September 30, 1998
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